“I couldn’t help but wonder if a simple underlying model might tidy up the canon.”…

Phys.org

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Imagining the physics of George R.R. Martin's fictional universe

Many science fiction authors try to incorporate scientific principles into their work, but Ian Tregillis, who is a contributing author of the Wild Cards book series when he's not working as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, took it one step further: He derived a formula to describe the dynamics of the fictional universe's viral system.

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Researchers have derived a formula for viral behavior in the Wild Cards, a science fiction series written by a collection of authors about an alien virus called the Wild Card that mutates human DNA. The formula he derived is a Lagrangian formulation, which considers the different ways a system can evolve. It's also a fundamental physics principle, which also makes the fictional example a powerful teaching tool.

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Daniel Hogan

United States

In independent research in the American Journal of Physics, Ian Tregillis and George R.R. Martin derive a formula for viral behavior in the Wild Cards, a science fiction series written by a collection of authors about an alien virus called the Wild Card that mutates human DNA. The formula he derived is a Lagrangian formulation, which considers the different ways a system can evolve. It’s also a fundamental physics principle, which also makes the 

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Imagining the Physics of George R.R. Martin’s Fictional Universe

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Ars Technica

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George R.R. Martin has co-authored a physics paper

Upstract

Game of Thrones Author Co-Writes Physics Paper on Superhero Virus

Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Ian Tregillis and Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin have published a physics paper deriving a mathematical model for the Wild Cards virus, a fictional pathogen that kills 90% of those infected while granting survivors either mutations ("Jokers") or superpowers ("Aces"). Published in the American Journal of Physics (February 2025), their paper develops a Lagrangian formulation to explain how the vi…

technewstube.com

ecotopical.com

Many science fiction authors try to incorporate scientific principles into their work, but Ian Tregillis, who is a contributing author of the Wild Cards book series when he's not working as a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, took it one step further: He derived a formula to describe the dynamics of the fictional universe's viral system. 
In independent research published in the American Journal of Physics, from AIP Publishing, Tregil…

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George R.R. Martin has co-authored a physics paper

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